IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/paaero/401318.html

The Role Of Social Media In The Development Of Rural Tourism

Author

Listed:
  • WOJCIECHOWSKA-SOLIS, JULIA

Abstract

Social media plays an increasingly important role in the activities of tourism enterprises. The aim of this article is to examine the role of social media in shaping the selection of rural tourism offers. The main research question posed was: How important is social media for the current development of rural tourism? A total of 280 respondents participated in the survey, which was conducted between July and September 2023. The data were processed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s Chi-square test, and the Mann- Whitney U test with the STATISTICA 13.3 PL software. Statistically significant differences were observed among respondents regarding the reasons for using social media, particularly in the categories: to seek information on tourism offers, to contact tourist facilities, and to post opinions on tourism products. In terms of the most common types of interaction through social media, similar results were obtained in both groups of respondents (female and male), with text messaging being the most frequent. Respondents rated all proposed sources of information on rural tourism via social media relatively poorly. “Travel blogs” received the lowest ratings, while referrals from friends were rated highest. This outcome reflects the fact that rural tourism operators still underestimate the potential of the Internet and fail to fully exploit the opportunities offered by social media, which contributes to rural tourism remaining a niche sector in the online environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Wojciechowska-Solis, Julia, 2025. "The Role Of Social Media In The Development Of Rural Tourism," Roczniki (Annals), Polish Association of Agricultural Economists and Agribusiness - Stowarzyszenie Ekonomistow Rolnictwa e Agrobiznesu (SERiA), vol. 2025(3).
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:paaero:401318
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.401318
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/401318/files/17%20%281%29.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.401318?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giacomo A M Ponzetto & Ugo Antonio Troiano, 2025. "Social Capital, Government Expenditures, and Growth," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 23(2), pages 632-681.
    2. Cheung, Paul H.Y. & Ellis, Keaton, 2025. "Non-isolation, reversals, and social preference," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 159-174.
    3. Chen, Yuanxing & Fang, Kuangnan & Lan, Wei & Tsai, Chih-Ling & Zhang, Qingzhao, 2025. "Community influence analysis in social networks," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    4. Michał Roman & Monika Roman & Piotr Prus & Małgorzata Szczepanek, 2020. "Tourism Competitiveness of Rural Areas: Evidence from a Region in Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    5. ., 2025. "The social isolation conundrum," Chapters, in: The Social and Legal Impact of Autonomous Vehicles, chapter 14, pages 169-196, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Wojciechowska-Solis, Julia, 2023. "Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas: Educational Homesteads and Agritourism Farms," Roczniki (Annals), Polish Association of Agricultural Economists and Agribusiness - Stowarzyszenie Ekonomistow Rolnictwa e Agrobiznesu (SERiA), vol. 2023(3).
    7. Montano-Silva & Abraham-Millán & Gutiérrez & Rodríguez-Suárez & Romero-Amaro & Hernández, 2025. "Teenage pregnancy: a social problem for science," Health Leadership and Quality of Life, AG Editor, vol. 4, pages 655-655.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maryam Arif & Soban Saeed, 2025. "Machine Learning Predictive Analytics for Social Media Enabled Women's Economic Empowerment in Pakistan," Papers 2512.12685, arXiv.org.
    2. Zanfina Ademi & Sheridan E. Rodda & Karl Vivoda & Susan Hennessy & Olive Fenton & James S. Ware, 2025. "Highlights from the Manifesto on the Health Economics of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 43(11), pages 1281-1292, November.
    3. Schill, Marie & Fosse-Gomez, Marie-Hélène, 2025. "Consumer climate change engagement in fostering well-being and mitigation behaviors," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    4. Sardorbek Musayev & Jonathan Mellor & Tara Walsh & Emmanouil Anagnostou, 2021. "Development of an Agent-Based Model for Weather Forecast Information Exchange in Rural Area of Bahir Dar, Ethiopia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-21, April.
    5. Mirosław Biczkowski & Aleksandra Jezierska-Thöle & Roman Rudnicki, 2021. "The Impact of RDP Measures on the Diversification of Agriculture and Rural Development—Seeking Additional Livelihoods: The Case of Poland," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-26, March.
    6. Abang Zainoren Abang Abdurahman & Syerina Azlin Md Nasir & Wan Fairos Wan Yaacob & Serah Jaya & Suhaili Mokhtar, 2021. "Spatio-Temporal Clustering of Sarawak Malaysia Total Protected Area Visitors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-19, October.
    7. Perroni, Carlo & Scharf, Kimberley & Smith, Sarah & Talavera, Oleksandr & Vi, Linh, 2024. "Local Crime and Prosocial Attitudes : Evidence from Charitable Donations," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1493, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    8. Celal Cevher & Bulent Altunkaynak & Meltem Gürü, 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 on Agricultural Production Branches: An Investigation of Anxiety Disorders among Farmers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, May.
    9. Ekaterina V. Orlova, 2025. "Dynamic Modeling and Structural Equation Analysis of Team Innovativeness Under the Influence of Social Capital and Conflict Mediation," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-21, October.
    10. Gorka Zamarreño-Aramendia & Elena Cruz-Ruiz & Elena Ruiz-Romero de la Cruz, 2021. "Sustainable Economy and Development of the Rural Territory: Proposal of Wine Tourism Itineraries in La Axarquía of Malaga (Spain)," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, March.
    11. Yakovlev, Pavel A. & Tosun, Mehmet S. & Lewis, William P., 2018. "The Fiscal Consequences of State Legislative Term Limits," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 48(3), January.
    12. Traviss Cassidy & Mark Dincecco & Ugo Troiano, 2015. "Broadening State Capacity," NBER Working Papers 21373, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Anna Lo Prete & Agnese Sacchi, 2026. "Government Spending and Civic Engagement: Exploring the Role of Civil Society Participation and Voting in 28 Democracies," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 79(2), pages 357-376, May.
    14. Ligia Alba Melo-Becerra & Jorge Enrique Ramos-Forero & Camilo G�mez, 2022. "El presupuesto general de la nación: una aproximación a las partidas de transferencias e inversión," Revista Desarrollo y Sociedad, Universidad de los Andes,Facultad de Economía, CEDE, vol. 90(5), pages 153-206.
    15. Paz Rico & Bernardí Cabrer-Borrás & Francisco Morillas-Jurado, 2021. "Seasonality in Tourism: Do Senior Programs Mitigate It?," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(16), pages 1-27, August.
    16. David Bartolini & Agnese Sacchi & Domenico Scalera & Alberto Zazzaro, 2018. "The closer the better? Institutional distance and information blurring in a political agency model," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 146, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    17. Albert Solé-Ollé & Elisabet Viladecans-Marsal, 2017. "Housing booms and busts and local fiscal policy," Working Papers XREAP2017-14, Xarxa de Referència en Economia Aplicada (XREAP), revised Dec 2017.
    18. Prakash Kumar Sarangi & Akhilesh Kumar Singh & Rajesh Kumar Srivastava & Vijai Kumar Gupta, 2023. "Recent Progress and Future Perspectives for Zero Agriculture Waste Technologies: Pineapple Waste as a Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    19. Michał Roman & Piotr Grudzień, 2021. "The Essence of Agritourism and Its Profitability during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-25, May.
    20. Eulalia Skawińska & Romuald I. Zalewski, 2020. "Success Factors of Startups in the EU—A Comparative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-28, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:paaero:401318. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/seriaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.